Sony’s woes continue with more website hacking

Personal information for 8,500 people was leaked from its Greek Sony Music Entertainment website, says the report, alongside some 2,000 customer data records taken from a server that ran a shopping website in Canada.

A total of four sites have been taken down and the report adds that no credit card information had been registered.

However, the news follows a disastrous spell for Sony. The Japanese electronics company announced a £260bn yen (£2bn) loss for the year, says the Daily Telegraph report.

The company, which makes Vaio computers, PlayStation, Bravia TVs, and a host of music and movies, has also had its plants hit by the Japanese earthquake, with power-cuts and difficult conditions for procuring components continue to affect the company's supply chain. It has also suffered a drop in demand from Japanese consumers.

Sony's share price has tumbled a quarter since the turn of the year, says a report in The Independent report, with the company admitting that sales were likely to be down from ¥7.2tn 12 months ago to ¥7.1tn.

The losses heap further pressure on its embattled chief executive Sir Howard Stringer, continues the piece, in a year when the group has suffered from the devastating earthquake in Japan and another cyber attack on its network.

On Forbes stynkfysh has said: "Sony declared the war on this one, I am afraid. They went after the hacker and pursued a court order for all personally identifiable IP addresses of people who had visited Holt's website, from what I understand. Not too different than these hackers, in my opinion. I frankly took Sony off my list of companies to buy products from after they did that and am somewhat giddy that they are being made to suffer now. I hope these hackers show more respect for Sony's customers and immediately erase or refrain from obtaining individuals' data, which they appear to be."

Sony is still reeling from the attack on its online gaming networks last month. In April, the company disclosed that hackers had broken into the PlayStation Network, Qriocity and the Sony Online Entertainment network and stolen up to 100m gamers' personal details in two separate attacks.

The company was heavily criticised for waiting a week before telling its customers about the possible theft of credit card information. Some users have filed class-action lawsuits against Sony.